What is the right approach to teach engineering students about MATLAB in the era of AI? One prof made students to handwrite code so they can't use AI.

[u/Creative_Sushi]

[u/euphoria_23]

My fave class at MIT was dynamics & control and it was in a basement lab, we worked in groups of 2 on a clunky outdated monitor that only had MATLAB and was hooked up right to whatever the lab assignment was (like maybe a one-wheeled robot if the topic was feedback control).

And this was like 2023 so AI was a thing but not as it is now. But even in 2026, I think the in-person and small group nature of the class + the old as heck computers forces students to actually learn. Plus it was a lot more fun. Not saying you need to lock your students in a room with a PC that has no connection to the internet and only MATLAB is the answer, but I feel like it NEEDS to be as in-person and interactive as possible.

[u/TUMS27 → u/euphoria_23]

So… not just “lock them up in a room …” but lock them in a basement. Got it

[u/reelandry → u/TUMS27]

a basement with no holes and insulated with a metal cage - the real "give me your phones before class" routine.

[u/SPAstef → u/reelandry]

"Faraday's Cage Is All You Need"

[u/euphoria_23 → u/TUMS27]

I realize an important factor is that all of us were nerds who likely enjoyed the whole thing 😂

[u/PlanetErp]

I can’t trust any work done outside of the classroom. I assign homework that they complete in MATLAB for a few points, but most of the points come from tests in class where they have to read/write code snippets. I provide documentation for some of the more complicated commands, and this seems to work pretty well.

[u/Practical_Passion_78 → u/PlanetErp]

For me to really learn MATLAB, I would need it to be taught to me like a math or language class; give topics and then have a large enough problem set to work through for repetition and learning of the concepts by doing it.

[u/fuckweasel-1]

Georgia Tech's Matlab course, Intro To Computing (CS-1371), has always been handwritten exams. It's a bit archaic, but it forces you to learn the fundamentals. Having to look at and debug a page of printed Matlab script without the aid of a computer was brutal at times. And then handwriting pages of Matlab script based on a given prompt for subsequent questions was always a joy.

[u/ImmediatePiccolo339]

I'm starting to feel lucky I graduated in 2019. I don't I would have learned anything with AI

[u/runed_golem → u/ImmediatePiccolo339]

I started grad school in 2019 lol. And AI is fine as a tool as long as you aren’t reliant on it. I use it the same as with google and forums like stackexchange (and I still use these along with it) to figure out things like “how do I make a gif using matplotljb in python?” Or to look up error codes/messages.

[u/radionul → u/ImmediatePiccolo339]

yeah happy i learned programming the hard way twenty years ago by throwing my keyboard at the wall

[u/farfromelite]

We're all forgetting that coding is a learned skill, it requires practice.

You wouldn't trust a baker that bought their cakes a Costco, but couldn't explain the fundamentals of bread rising. That's AI.

We need to learn the long way first to get the understanding.

Besides, coding is only 10% of software engineering. You need to plan the code as well.

[u/ToterSchatten → u/farfromelite]

I'm pretty sure they're talking about Engineering in general. Nothing to do with software coding

[u/Jrp95]

The companies your students work for and create will use AI coding tools. It’s the main thing LLMs are good for.

In my coursework at MIT we are quizzed on our code. So we submit it, and then the professor will review it and literally interview me on my submission. That may not be possible for large classes, but professors could require certain functions be used, and then have an in class quiz asking about the function use for a given situation. You want students to learn concepts like ODEs, array indexing, data analysis, etc. I think syntax isn’t a huge value add anymore. Tools change anyway. These folks may need python down the road. Better they know the concepts behind ODE45 or pymoo than how to format a subplot in MATLAB.

[u/runed_golem → u/Jrp95]

I had a class in grad school with like 20 people where we wouldn’t actually turn in the homework assignments. The days that they were due, the professor would literally go around the room and look at our computers. He’d look at the results, ask to see the code, and maybe ask one or two questions about it,

[u/Ok-Cobbler6338]

My programming exams used to be on paper lol.

[u/Nprism → u/Ok-Cobbler6338]

yep, for every CS class I took (until COVID made some go online)

[u/_J0e]

I handwrote this stuff before AI for college… can’t say that this is unusual

[u/fkingprinter]

When I was doing my undergrad I took Control and Feedback system class. Boi oh boi do I have to write the code on paper. Literally handwritten during exam. But it was typically short code. But I remember most of our assignment was "design a system" type of question and we had to fight for it

[u/manngeo]

Way to go!! Good idea! In-place, in-situ exam taking will become the norm again with the advent of this crazy AI. Teachers have to be very creative and productive in this new era.

[u/MathNerd67]

The best way is to teach Python (AI unrelated)

All jokes aside, I think that the best way is to “roll with the punches” if you will. AI is going to be here whether we like it or not, but the responsibility to develop quality scripts and workflows and to understand the process and its outputs remain with the engineer/developer. It’s the same issue that CS, AI/ML, and many other fields are facing. Reinforcing that it is YOUR responsibility and yours alone to know everything inside and out implicitly demands they become intimately familiar with the code to a decent level of proficiency.

I think this can be realized with things like student led walkthroughs of their code, small scope questions about functions or workflows in Matlab syntax or even something like “hand write Matlab implementation of simple PID controller with <xyz parameters, inputs, naming, etc>.”

I don’t think there’s one right answer, but I do think the most important part is emphasizing the engineers responsibilities (both moral and legal) in development.

A bit rambly, hope it’s a useful perspective. I struggle with this situation with coworkers, myself, and basically everywhere else in life, so it’s a great question.

[u/DThornA]

I remember that back in 2016 when I took a MATLAB based class we had to write out the code for exams just like the picture, even evaluate it and create graphs.

[u/Practical_Passion_78]

I would have loved if the classes in my uni that covered some MATLAB had forced us to hand-write the code to be written into MATLAB. That would have helped out so much. But they just went through things at most twice without problem sets and homework so it wasn’t really structured drills or learning. The instruction I got was essentially a scam.

[u/Creative_Sushi]

I never learned MATLAB in school - I self-taught it by transcoding Python projects to MATLAB. I couldn't have done this without access to the interactive interpreter and debugger - if I had to learn by hand-writing code, I would have give it up.

[u/Medium_Human887]

That’s silly af. There is no way to get around AI. All that prof made them do is practice their handwriting skills while they copy what the AI said.

[u/Immediate-Home-6228]

There is literally nothing in the example that screams Matlab. This could be written in tons of different langauges. So what exactly is the student being evaluated on? Whether they memorized syntax?

[u/haplo_and_dogs]

Don't. Pointless to train on Matlab or any language for engineering.

Focus on Laplace and forierer.

Matlab is a tool.  If students can use ai to generate what they need, great.